text:
A kid-led revolution is how the people behind the new film, "Look! I'm Learning!" bill it. Slated for a Fall 2012 release, the documentary promotes the value of technology in education. Partnering with teachers, and state and local education technology leaders, its makers tell the inspirational story of the Ludington, Michigan iPad pilot program and its impact on teachers Ashley and Amber and their students. Sure, chalk it up alongside a number of recent education documentaries, but the folks behind this production have a very specific goal in mind: they sincerely hope to revitalize the federal, state and local dialogue about the power and potential of appropriately integrating leading-edge technology to improve teaching and learning in formal education settings. "By telling the story, the documentary will do what no whitepaper, 3-ring binder or press conference can do," says Allyson Rockwell, the film's director and producer. "It will give real teachers, real students and real parents an opportunity to tell their stories of the changes and benefits the program brought to them." Bruce Umpstead is the executive producer; the project's creative director is Peter H. Reynolds. Bruce is also the State Education Technology Director at the Michigan Department of Education. In the panel discussion below you'll hear from Bruce, as well as Tom Johnson, Director of Technology for Mason-Lake ISD and Oceana ISD; Ashley McDonald, a kindergarten teacher at Lakeview Elementary School in Ludington, Mich. (and runner up for MACUL Outstanding Technology-Using Teacher of the Year), and Amber Kowatch, a second-grade teacher at Franklin Elementary School in Ludington, Mich. and the 2012 MACUL Outstanding Technology-Using Teacher of the Year. At this phase of the project, the kids need your help. After you've heard from the adults below, click on the image above and hear directly from them. Do you think this is a good idea? What's your take? Have a look for yourself, and feel free to chime in or to help.
Victor: What prompted you to conceptualize this in the very first place?
Bruce: When I learned that a kindergarten and second grade teacher had gone one-to-one with their students and totally changed how they teach and their students learn, I said: "everyone has to see this." It's one thing to have technology in an elementary classroom, it's quite another to have the students taking the devices home, demonstrating responsibility, and "owning" their own learning at such an early age.
Tom: The conceptualization came from two places. The first is success we have had in recent years in impacting education by changing the nature of classroom instruction and engaging students and parents with 24×7 one-to-one technology. Prior project and nearly all of the existing research on this topic has been at the middle and high school level. When done well this type of effort results in positive effects. The second was really observational. Having seen and heard about the way very young children were 'playing' with their parents iPhones and doing so with no training and with much skill, it was apparent that there was something new in this technology. The iPads had just come out and essentially operated as a larger iPhone. Thus, we combined what we new about effective one-to-one efforts with what appeared to be something special about you children's ability to embrace and use this technology. We wanted to see what happen when we married the two concepts.
Victor: What's the background on this? Can you tell a bit about getting others involved?
Bruce: The classroom pilot started from three directions. One, Amber and Ashley, the two teachers, were very busy raising funds and organizing to bring technology into their schools and classrooms. Two, Tom Johnson with the regional service agency was wrapping up a Title IID federal grant and wanted to demonstrate the potential impact technology has in the early childhood as part of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation "Great Start" initiative in Ludington Area Schools (LASD). So it started very much as a partnership.
I got involved, first, as the Title IID grant administrator. When I saw what the young teachers had accomplished, I said, "we're going to make a movie so everyone can see this." The problem with most small technology implementations is that the results end up on a powerpoint at state or regional conference. These classrooms are one-to-one, "green," differentiated, facilitated, individualized, 21st Century learning environments at the earliest ages.
I called Allyson Rockwell, the only accomplished documentary film director I knew and invited her to see the teachers present at our state conference. Like me, she fell in love with the story.
Victor: What problem were you trying to solve?
Bruce: I think the problem we are trying to solve is the misconception about the promise technology holds for education. It is about productivity—Ashley and Amber have more than 25 students each, making it hard to differentiate and individualize instruction for each student without one-to-one devices—but it's about so much more. Its about creativity—the students make their own picture books, write their own blogs, select their own apps. It's about responsibility—caring for the devices is the students' responsibility. It's about loving learning—just look at the kids respond to activities! We want a movie to show this enthusiasm.
At the same time, we want to show the challenges schools are facing. These are the only two classrooms in Ludington, grades K-12, that are one-to-one. The students in the pilot last year, moved on to classrooms without the technology this year.
This has created such a stir that the school board was faced with going to the community with bond request, so they could provide every student with the same learning opportunity.
This is the story, how do we provide technology designed for learning for every student who wants or needs it? How do we provide this when the federal government has eliminated dedicated technology funding and states, like Michigan, don't make it a priority?
Tom: Bruce speaks to this some above. However, I believe that responsibility is a huge area. This is about a transference of responsibility for learning from mainly the teachers responsibility to one that is equally shared among teacher, student and parent. Empowering students changes their entire perception about school. Opening a new doorway to the classroom, that kids take their parents by the hand and walk them virtually into their classroom creates allows children to clearly share with parents what they are learning, how they are learning and when they need help learning.
Victor: It's not 1999 anymore, it's 2012 of course—so what's the context for all this— technologically, politically, academically, etc.?
Amber: As a society we keep saying that technology is the future of education. That simply isn't true. Our world is utilizing technology in every facet now so we need to wrap our heads around the fact that technology is the now and not the future. Almost no job could be done without technology in some form so we should be held responsible for teaching our children how to use technology to learn, communicate, and collaborate.
Ashley: We are expecting our students to function in society that is surrounded by technology yet most are not using technology in the classroom to prepare them for the real world. By the year 2015 all students in Michigan will be required to take the state assessment on a computer but we are not training them on the devices. Technology is here and now, there isn't a way to get around it, so let's embrace it and do what is best for our students and accommodate their learning styles. Students are more engaged using technology in the classroom. Teachers should take the leap and add it to their ever changing bag of tricks and tools to enhance learning, even if it is one small step at a time. I think most will find that it is such a beneficial tool.
Tom: Increasingly, adults report that kids are not engaged and do not have the skills necessary to succeed. This could not be further from the truth. The reality is that kids have abilities and access to information and to one another that we adults cannot and do not understand. The frequency and openness of interaction among young people, for those what are willing to look, is astonishing. Kids today communicate in person, on the phone, via texting, on FaceBook, using email, and in many other ways. The relationships, the sharing of thoughts and feelings and the support offered through these venues is tremendous. (We hear about the bad news—bullying, etc.) What we don't hear about is the positive peer support that pours through these portals and that is helping our kids have a greater understanding of who they are and how their actions impact others that most adults still do not grasp. Kids today know when they are respected, they tune in and out accordingly when respect, challenge, and creative demand offer them work and learning that earns their dedication. They are demanding consumers on all fronts, learning maybe the most.
Victor: There have been other education movies, Superman, others with Maggie Gyllenhall/big stars in the works. Also, Edutopia has filmed vignettes of what works in education for years, and there have been a handful of documentaries in this ed reform genre—so how does this project fit into those—and how is it unique?
Bruce: We hope people see Look! I'm Learning! as a response to films like Waiting for Superman that appear to denigrate public school structures instead of reinvest in them. This story is about committed teachers asking for tools to improve their teaching and their students learning, and when they get those tools, great things happen.
Victor: What do you perceive the current national conversation on educational technology to be, in a few sentences or so? You stated that your goal is to change that conversation—what direction do you want to make that conversation take? Why?
Tom: I believe that most adults understand that kids are embracing technology and that they do not understand the full extent or potential of this reality. This film can offer them an insight on how this can be a good thing for our kids and for the future. It can offer permission for adults to let this happen and to embrace positive change.
There is no reason for kids to be shackled with the same educational system that we had. Removing the limitations that existed 20, 30, 40 years ago is our responsibility. I want people to see that every generation should be given new opportunities for them to allow those opportunities to be embraced.
Victor: There are decade-long edtech reform cycles that wreak of deja vu all over again. How is this time around different? With an analytical approach, consider this line of thought: "This is gonna revolutionize education!"
Bruce: I have been in conversations as recently as December 2012 with policy makers asking for evidence that technology has an impact in the classroom. Everyone wants increased technology investment to "equal" increased student achievement. This equation seeks to erase the teacher from the equation. We want to change the conversation, the equation. We believe that increasingly effective teachers "equal" increased student achievement.
Our story bears this out. Our second grade teacher Amber Kowatch saw her reading scores jump 16 percent in one year through the use of technology. Her mathematics scores jumped 8 percent. This happened with the state, region, and school averages remained flat. This is after one year! We can't wait to see what happens after Amber has the technology for two, three, four years.
And how about the students? What will happen to those students that have increasingly effective teachers year-after-year? We won't know because Amber's students moved on to classrooms with little, if any technology.
Tom: I would clarify that Amber's increases are percentage point increases. The 16 points in reading reflect a 25 percent increase in student performance and the eight points in Math a 12 percent increase. Reading went from 64 percent to 80 percent and Math from 50 percent to 58 percent.
As to the initial question—the kids are moving past us regardless of what we do. They are using technology, whenever they have access to it, to move themselves forward. If we don't make these changes, then they are going to find other ways to learn that far outpace what we have done in the past, making the current educational system largely irrelevant. The question isn't about if education is going to be revolutionized—it's about who is going to lead it and when do we embrace the coming changes.
Victor: What are your thoughts on professional development surrounding this project? What compels you to take this sort of professional development approach?
Amber: Some people are comfortable and ready to use technology right now in their classroom. If they were offered the opportunity they would take it and run but…to make technology work in the classroom at a level that will make a difference in achievement, teachers will need to be trained on how to use it and why it will benefit their students. With any new education initiative professional development should always be a huge part of the roll-out.
Ashley: Professional development is very important. Teachers need to know what the devices are capable of before just handing them over. Professional development should be on going for staff.
Victor: What results are you looking to achieve?
Tom: Increased teacher capacity. Increased engagement of students and parents. Students learning to use technology constructively to improve their ability to learn, communicate, collaborate and problem-solve. And yes, improved achievement on standardized testing. Most importantly, we are looking to make education relevant, effective and more productive.
Victor: What are your thoughts on education these days?
Tom: The last few questions really address this in a variety of ways. In a nutshell, I know that we are teaching kids far more and far earlier than we ever have and are doing so with some success. I know that we need to do even more. I believe that embracing and encouraging students to use the technology at our disposal to be more successful learners is the key to future success.
Victor: What makes you say that?
Tom: Just spend a weekend with some kids who have technology and connectivity and quietly pay attention to their actions, their conversations—not just verbal—and their capacity to meet their own needs.
Victor: What are the main challenges in education today?
Bruce: I believe dedicated funding is still needed. Because the visible evidence is lacking in technology and the costs remain relatively high for full-scale implementations, school boards and administrators are reluctant to allocate the resources. I believe incentive funding, like we have seen in Race to the Top, would compel states and schools to make the needed investments to scale. Leadership is another key component. Tom Johnson, the technology director at the regional service agency, demonstrated leadership in casting a vision for technology in the early elementary classroom. Amber and Ashley demonstrated instructional leadership by taking the chance with implementing one-to-one. They had to totally transform their classrooms. School and district leadership quickly realized that something special was happening and lended a hand. Superintendent Calvin DeKiuper has stepped up to lead a funding initiative to provide technology for the entire district.
Tom: Adult preconceptions.
Victor: Haha—interesting, Tom. So, how do you see, "Look, I'm Learning" addressing your concerns about education?
Amber: Look! I'm Learning! will present a powerful message to all those involved in the education world. It will showcase how teaching needs to change in order to reach all of our students. It will show that it isn't about handing a device to a student and expecting good results, it is about a philosophical shift that has to happen. Students need to become valuable members of our society and to do that they need to be responsible, motivated, be able to think critically, problem solve, and be able to communicate in multiple ways. Using technology can certainly help achieve all of those results if it is used to its fullest potential. Look! I'm Learning! will show what is possible in education and why technology should be at the forefront of every school's budget.
Ashley: Students are able to sit in the drivers seat in their learning. Students can achieve great results using technology.
Tom: It gives kids permission to learn as fast and as deep as they can.
Victor: What is the call to action here? Why that and not another?
Bruce: This is a call to action. We need to demonstrate new models of teaching and learning enabled by technology designed for learning. We need to demonstrate it in ways people can see. There is a reason YouTube is the second-most used search engine on the web. People want to see what you are talking about. So let's show them.
Victor: Alright—thank you thus far! Now, a few more, rapid-fire questions for you all. You may already have answered these, but let's just give it a whirl: Why did you create the film?
Bruce: There is a story here beyond the information about a technology pilot that went right. What happens to the students in the first year of the pilot that don't have access to technology for learning today? What is the school district doing about it?
Victor: What does the name 'Look! I'm Learning!' mean?
Bruce: The name, "Look! I'm Learning!" tumbled out of the mouth of a kindergartner on the first day she was able to use the device in the classroom. It epitomizes this new way of learning that empowers the student to learn and own her learning.
Victor: What is it? Who created it?
Tom: That is tough to define. The kids really create it. The teachers are amazing and do all the work to make it possible but in the end, the kids are the ones really pushing the edge. The kids constantly exceed expectations.
Victor: What is something interesting or relevant about its development history?
Amber: This story is very unique because most technology initiatives are offered at the junior high or high school level. This project was created for a kindergarten and second grade classroom and to help make a connection between classroom and home. All of our students use their devices each and every day at school as well as at home with their families every night. This project has created a true 24/7 learning environment where our kids see that learning doesn't stop when the bell rings and they walk out the door for the day.
Ashley: Parental involvement with homework has been redefined. Parents actually want to sit down with their child at night to see what they learned in class. Parents have a window into our classroom's by seeing class work on the wiki, class videos, notes and pictures. Family time is now spent all learning around the iPad playing educational games. Parents as well as other children in the home all have the opportunity to learn with the iPad.
Victor: Your thoughts on education these days?
Amber: Education is something that is always evolving. Never once in the history of education has there ever been a lack of desire for change. Exactly what that change is or should be is usually the difficult part to figure out. I believe that as a teacher we need to stop handing information to our students. We give, give, give and expect them to learn, learn, learn but learning in that way just doesn't make sense. If we give students the opportunity to take learning into their own hands then they will be more driven and motivated then ever before. Technology has helped me teach my children how to be resourceful learners. They are taking the initiative and I am able to stand beside them and help guide their learning rather than hand them the answers. This kind of teaching and learning will help my students become critical thinkers and problem solvers in the 21st century.
Ashley: Amber said it! Our students are becoming critical thinkers and problem solvers in the 21st century. We are so please with the way they have grown in these skills. Students are able to learn at their own pace, and teachers are able to accommodate all learning styles easier with the iPad.
Victor: What sort of formative experiences in your own education helped to inform your approach to creating 'Look! I'm Learning!' ?
Bruce: I know Allyson can talk to this better than I can, but my two daughters thrive on technology. They are on it every chance they get, especially Mikayla, my fourth-grader. I watch her struggle with her multiplication tables, filling out dittos. They are the same type of dittos that bored me in school and almost cost me my analytical skills. But I watch the same child go back and forth from YouTube and a video game, using recorded "cheats" to improve her performance.
Victor: How does 'Look! I'm Learning!' address some of your concerns about education?
Bruce: First and foremost, the film highlights great teaching and how technology designed for learning empowers great teachers to teach. What I love about this story is that the teachers were asking for the technology. If there is one thing I have learned, if we can get the teachers asking for the technology, the technology will have the desired impact on their productivity, creativity, and effectiveness.
Victor: What is your outlook on the future of education?
Bruce: Positive. The disruptive technology we hold in are hands are going turn education upside down, or in many cases, right-side up, empowering great teachers and throngs of students to own and love learning. Our film captures the positive, upside to technology in the classroom.
Victor: Any funny stories?
Bruce: Since we launched our Kickstarter campaign to "crowd source" the completion of the film, I have been asked if "executive production" of the film is part of my official job responsibilities. The answer is yes. As a state education technology director, I see my role increasingly becoming an advocate for students a means of engaging, broadening, and improving their learning. (P.S. You should see the look I get when I start talking about our next film!)
Amber: Nora, one of my second graders shared this with me, "Last night I had a dream that I erased our whole wiki and then the world came to an end!" This "dream" shows exactly how important my student's digital world is to them and their learning.
Victor: Wow! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights about education, learning, technology and more. Let's talk again after the film has had a chance to make an impact. So, for now, thank you all very much and very best wishes in the months and years to come!


text:
Message Board
Sue Rann Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Rann has written!
Author Rann's Book Reviews
Looking For Mr Nobody
Wolf, a down-and-out pavement artist living in Amsterdam, can't recall who he is, but people seem to want him dead. He tries to save a friend from sinister men in black, and gets embroiled in an illegal medical experiment with the effects of military-spec designer drugs backed by shadowy government types. Robin Carlson, American Army brat tough girl who has a Glock-17 for a security blanket, is trying to find her boyfriend, who has disappeared in the cit...
Looking for Mr. Nobody
This story, set in Amsterdam amid its wintertime, is of two people. Part of the story is told in first person from Robin Carlson's point of view. Robin is an American ex-Army brat working as a judo instructor and part-time bouncer in a nightclub. Robin's former boyfriend, Cary, shows up at her apartment wanting help to find someone--he doesn't give a name. When Cary goes missing, Robin feels obligated to learn what happened to him and to follow through o...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
ENCODE datasets at UCSC are listed in the Experiment Submissions spreadsheet below. Terms appearing in the spreadsheet are described on the Registered Variables page. Use these terms in the UCSC track search tool (Advanced tab) to select data for viewing in the browser. Files can be downloaded from the ENCODE Downloads page or via the Downloads link on the selected track description pages.
All ENCODE data here are freely available for download and analysis. Data listed as "released" have undergone quality review and have been released to the UCSC public site. Datasets that have been updated with newer versions may have been revoked. If so, they will no longer be accessible from the ENCODE and UCSC search and menu interfaces nor at GEO. The data may be present on the downloads site, but will be marked 'replaced' or 'revoked' in the metadata file, 'files.txt' present in each downloads directory.
Download spreadsheet in: Excel format (.xls) OpenOffice spreadsheet format (.ods) Comma-separated format (.csv)


text:
Participate in the inexhaustible game of seduction, designed to enrich your imagination, providing you and your couple with the perfect blend of ecstasy and eroticism. Submerge yourself in the Desire experience, a world of erotic pleasure, where fulfilling your fantasies and awaking your senses is your only objective.
Our Desire Riviera Maya Resort Fantasy Menu has been specially designed keeping our guests in mind. If you can fantasize about it… we can make it happen!
For more juicy details, click to unlock your Fantasy.


text:
The Labelexpo Global Series has won two coveted awards at the prestigious AEO (Association of Event Organisers) Excellence Awards which were held at London's Old Billingsgate on 21 June. Triumphing in the Organiser Team of the Year category, the team also scooped the Marketing Campaign of the Year award for a record-breaking fourth time.
Recognizing its work across 2012's Labelexpo Americas, Labelexpo India and the South China Label Show, Labelexpo won the Organiser Team of the Year category for its commitment to working closely with venue partners, industry trade associations and exhibitors alike. With all three shows experiencing an increase in floor size and rising exhibitor and visitor numbers, the award highlights the collaborative nature of event organization, showcasing objectives and achievements, improved productivity, efficiency and performance.
Lisa Milburn, managing director Labelexpo Global Series commented: "We are very honored to have won these two esteemed awards. May I personally congratulate and thank each member of the Labelexpo team for their contribution in delivering world class and record-breaking events and helping us to win these fantastic accolades. May I also thank our many industry partners, exhibitors, show visitors and the media for the strong support we continue to receive and that makes our shows so successful."
Winners of the Marketing Campaign of the Year category in 2008, 2010 and 2011, the team won for an unprecedented fourth time with its in-house Labelexpo Americas campaign. Using the tagline "Uncover the greatest technological advances of our time", the theme was based on the various situations an undercover spy finds themself in. Personalized and devised across a range of print and electronic mediums, the campaign also made clever use of the printing technology that would be on show at the exhibition with a carton mailing in the form of a spy camera. Judges said of the entry ''Great theme and interesting design" and "Delivered first class results".
Michael Hatton, Labelexpo Global Series' marketing director said: "It is an exceptionally rare honor to be recognized for an amazing fourth time by the AEO and we are absolutely thrilled to win again. It is a massive achievement for the whole team especially as other shows in the printing sector have recently experienced declining attendance. I would like to thank our media and industry partners for supporting the campaign again and helping the show be the fantastic success it was."


text:
SAP and its long-standing partner Esri have developed a native product integration that debuted this week at the at the Esri User Conference currently under way in San Diego.
The companies have been collaborating on projects since 1999, due to the significant overlap in their respective customer bases. Some 60 percent of SAP's asset management customers use Esri's mapping technology, Ashish Sahu, director of product marketing for SAP HANA Predictive, Text and Spatial Analytics, told CRM Buyer.
Customers previously had to look elsewhere for the systems integration work, he said. "Our customers have been asking, 'why don't you deliver to us an integrated product so we don't have to do the work or use third-party connectors?' So that is what we did."
SAP and Esri began working on the native integration last year, he added.
The integration is between Esri's ArcGIS Online system and SAP Lumira, SAP's agile visualization product. Generally speaking, it allows users to use the existing Esri ArcGIS server and online Esri maps inside SAP's business intelligence tools to create maps for displaying and tracking data.
Integration options also are available between related products: SAP BusinessObjects BI and Esri geospatial services, including Galigeo BI for Location Analytics for SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence software; Integeo Map Intelligence for SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence; Centigon CMaps Analytics and Esri Maps for SAP BusinessObjects BI.
A Typical Use Case
A utility in Norway that wanted to map and identify where its underground pipes were in location to vulnerable buildings was an early adopter of the integrated product, said Steve Benner, Esri SAP Alliance Manager.
"These are old cast-iron pipes, and the purpose was to see how many were located near buildings and then rate them on the potential impact should there be an accident," he told CRM Buyer. "So a pipe close to a school, for example, would mean it was a high priority. The utility used SAP to analyze how many of these pipes were within a meter of a house or school."
From 3 Hours to 3 Seconds
Esri customers and SAP customers have been using the respective products for years to conduct such analyses, but without the native integration the process was time-consuming. The aforementioned example might have taken three hours to complete, Benner said. With the integration, it took three seconds.
"You can see the value of the integration, especially when you realize how these people work in the field," he remarked.
"A person might get a request for a map that showed all the pipes within a meter of a house. That person would say, 'OK, come back in three hours — or after lunch or tomorrow — to get your answer,' Benner said. "But then the next request would be to see the same data, but for all pipes that are a meter-and-a-half away from the house."
Again the data processing would crank up and three hours later produce the output.
A three-second processing time obviously is far more efficient and effective, Benner said.
The flexibility offers more options to users who might want to try new configurations with a data set but otherwise wouldn't have the time, said SAP's Sahu.
"These are busy people — they don't have the time to go outside of the application, as they had to before the integration, use another service, pull in the data, get used to an unfamiliar workflow, etc.," he maintained.
"With our integration, users don't have to leave the application at all," Sahu pointed out.
Future Changes
With a good 15 years of collaboration between the two companies, Benner expects the process will continue even with the integration now in hand.
"We are getting a lot of requested user features at our conference," he said. "I expect the next set of changes will be coming from our ecosystem and partners."


text: The Twelve City, a land governed by the leaders of the families who bear in their names the Chinese zodiac. In a city where youkai and humans coexist, the cat youkai who holds a grudge against the Rat Family appears in front of Nekuni Kyouichi, the head of the Rat Family. It's a malice-covered Hateful cat who is aiming for his life. But that youkai is Nekogasaki Natsuho, who's also extremely anxious around other people... Just like the saying "Curiosity killed the cat" … read more


text:
If you are running a play centre or a school in or around Gloucester, or you're a parent who is concerned about your child scuffing their new clothes on muddy ground, artificial play surfaces provide a welcome alternative to real grass. Many schools and nurseries across Gloucester are now making the switch from real grass to artificial grass and it has revitalised their play areas forever.
As children can be very heavy with their feet, it's important to get artificial grass that is long lasting and durable. Our play surfaces guarantee children will be able to run around on it for hours without any issue. Ensuring that artificial grass lasts as long as possible is all about choosing the best quality grass. So whether children are playing sports or a game of tag, material that can withstand a high volume of foot traffic is essential to the safety of the children but also needs to be something that feels as good as real grass.
When it comes to the safety of children, artificial grass in playgrounds, nurseries, or Gloucester's schools can create a safe environment. As artificial grass is naturally soft and non-abrasive, children can play on it without risk of serious injury. And if there is a risk of children falling, artificial grass can come with a foam underlay to guarantee a softer landing. For the health and safety conscious out there, artificial play surfaces provide peace of mind when the children are more than reckless with their safety.
Children want to play in Gloucester's ever changing weathers. The headaches that come with ensuring children are safe when running around in muddy fields, wet grass and uneven surfaces are many. But artificial grass can be used all year round with next to no mess. Plus artificial grass and synthetic play surfaces are shock absorbent, this can help children feel more comfortable in any weather.
Another key benefit of artificial play surfaces is that they are easy to maintain. As such, this can save schools and nurseries a lot of money that would have been spent on maintenance fees. As far as an investment is concerned, artificial play surfaces can help a school or nursery balance its budget. And as artificial grass is so easy to maintain and doesn't lose its colour, it helps to make your nursery or playgrounds look revitalised. If your grass has become unusable or looks tired or worn out, artificial play surfaces can help to inject a new lease of life into a once dull space.
Artificial play surfaces look great, withstand all weathers and footfall, and are safe to use all year round. If you're looking to revitalise your play area or breathe a new lease of life into to your playground or school without the worries that come with muddy grass, our play surfaces provide hours of enjoyment for Gloucester's children of all ages.


text:
In reality, it's just a bunch of paper that will sit on a shelf that may or may not ever be utilized anyway, like so many others of its kind that have come and gone in the past, but the County Commissioners were right to nix the Route 589 visioning plan.
The major hiccup, an expected one at that, was a planned expansion of the current 100-foot right-of-way to 160 feet, meaning existing property owners would see their land deemed useless, or stolen in the words of Commissioner Merrill Lockfaw.
Currently, Route 589 has a 100-foot right of way, but to add hiking and biking trails, lane expansion and to address the required stormwater issues the state wants to add 60 feet. While the goal is logical, property owners have every right to cry foul over the move, one that reportedly was added to a map in recent months and not available for review at the prior public workshops.
As understood, an expansion of the right-of-way would not have meant compensation for the affected property owners, such as the case when governments enact eminent domain. In those cases, fair market value is given to the property owners for the government essentially "taking" the land for what's deemed a public good. In this case, it appears property owners would have been without recourse, due to it being classified as a right-of-way.
The state has a problem here now because the county has nixed the visioning plan and there's no money to start the process over from scratch.
With fiscal constraints understandable, it seems reasonable to expect at least this portion of the visioning plan to be addressed independently.
SHA Director of Planning and Preliminary Engineering Greg Slater told the county the nixed plan would now be set aside and there is no plan to revisit it at this time. However, the county was okay with that, as it has already been told serious work on Route 589, meaning expanding it to four lanes from the existing two, should not be expected for at least 15 years.
Even if the county had approved the plan, it was still going to sit on a shelf and gather dust for years. Instead, the county was right to dismiss it at this early stage.
However, there are two major questions now with this decision.
One is the fate of the pedestrian and bike proposal. That should not be lost. It's important to integrate these means of travel into any new road in our area, as we desperately need to stress alternative modes of transportation and the area is clearly behind other more progressive jurisdictions on this front.
Another is whether this decision will impact short-term improvement plans for the road that include the addition of turn lanes, additional travel lanes in certain high-volume areas and general safety improvements. The preliminary understanding is this week's decision does not impact those plans, but that needs to be made clear.
There are several other uncertainties surrounding this week's decision, but the commissioners were right to ease property owners' fears at this time and do away with it for now.


text:
A feline subject reacts to a photograph of a man with a full dark semicircular beard.
Cats were exposed to photographs of bearded men. The beards were of various sizes, shapes, and styles. The cats' responses were recorded and analyzed.
Findings of Prior Investigators
Boone (1958) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to clean-shaven men. O'Connor and Brynner (1990) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to shaven heads. Quant (1965) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to bangs. Seuss (1955) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to hats. Ciccone (1986) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to hairy legs. Other related studies (Smith/Brothers 1972, Conroy 1987, Schwartzenegger 1983) have since been retracted because the investigators were not able to reproduce their results.
Norquist (1988) performed a series of experiments in which cats were exposed to photographs of Robert Bork[1] (not pictured here), a man whose beard is confined largely to the underside of the jaw. After viewing the Bork photograph, 26% of the cats exhibited paralysis of the legs and body, including the neck. An additional 31% of the cats exposed to the Bork photograph showed other types of severe neurological and/or pulmocardial distress and/or exhibited extremely violent behavior. Because of this, we did not include a photograph of this type of bearded man in our study.
Five photographs were used in the study. The photographs, reproduced here, display a range of different types of bearded men. (As noted above, one type of bearded man was, however, excluded from use in this study.)
The test subjects were female cats, all between the ages of four and six. 214 cats participated in the study. Three cats died during the study, due to causes unrelated to the bearded men. Fifteen cats gave birth while viewing the photographs.[2]
Each cat was exposed to the photographs. One photograph was shown at a time. Each photograph was visible for a span of twenty seconds. The photographs were presented in the same order to each cat.
While each cat was viewing the photographs, it was held by a laboratory assistant. To ensure that the cats were not influenced by stroking or other unconscious cues from the assistant, the assistant was anesthetized prior to each session. The cats' reactions were assessed for changes in pulse rate, respiration, eye dilation, fur shed rate, and qualitative behavior.
The results are presented in Table 1. The quantitative results are average values calculated over the entire feline subject population. The qualitative results are broken out by percentages of the subject population.
Table 1
Pulse Rate:
Runkel: +42%
Crafts: unchanged
Despradelle: +87%
Pritchett: +2%
Wiener: unchanged
Runkel: +186%
Crafts: unchanged
Despradelle: +317%
Pritchett: + 3%
Wiener: unchanged
Eye Dilation:
Runkel: +23%
Crafts: +1%
Despradelle: +31%
Pritchett: +3%
Wiener: unchanged
Fur Shed Rate:
Runkel: +12%
Crafts: unchanged
Despradelle: +19%
Pritchett: +2%
Wiener: unchanged
Qualitative Behavior:
52% attacked photograph; hissing; spitting;
generally agitated behavior.
34% fled.
14% had no visible response.
2% attacked photograph.
1% fled.
1% licked photograph.
94% had no visible response.
79% attacked photograph; hissing; spitting;
generally violent, agitated behavior; chaotic
tail twitch; screeching; incontinence.
19% fled.
2% had no visible response.
7% attacked photograph.
1% fled.
91% had no visible response.
Wiener: (100%) No visible response.
- Cats do not like men with long beards, especially long dark beards.
- Cats are indifferent to men with shorter beards.
- Cats are confused and/or disturbed by men with beards that are incomplete (e.g., Bork) and to a lesser degree by men whose beards have missing parts (e.g., Crafts).
These interpretations are not categorical. They are subject to several obvious qualifications. The most notable are listed below.
Qualification A. This study excluded photographs of men with beards confined largely to the underside of the jaw (see above discussion of Robert Bork). While data are available from studies conducted by other investigators, those studies made use of a different methodology than the one we used in our study. We are therefore hesitant to interpret our findings in light of the "Bork" findings, or vice versa.
Qualification B. This study was conducted with photographs of bearded men. In a future study we intend to investigate feline responses to animate bearded men. A large number of factors might produce significantly different results in the two studies. In particular, there has been speculation that beardedmen produce pheromones which could have a significant effect on cats.[3]
The author wishes to thank The MIT Museum Collection for allowing us to use photographs from its Bearded Men Collection and for generously granting permission to reproduce the photographs as part of this research report. Special thanks to Sally Beddow for assistance in selecting appropriate photographs (the Collection includes more than 71,000 photographs of bearded men) and to Warren Seamans and Kathy Thurston. Special thanks also to Lisa Yane for coordinating the scheduling, travel and housing arrangements for the feline subjects and for obtaining medical clearances in connection with anesthetizing the research assistant.
- Bork was a nominee to the United States Supreme Court. Because of Bork's distinctive beard, his photograph has been used in reaction studies with dogs, rats, and planaria (flatworms) and in bombardment studies with pigeons.
- We excluded all data pertaining to the fifteen cats who gave birth while viewing the photographs. The reproducibility of the GAVE BIRTH/DID NOT GIVE BIRTH data will be addressed in a separate, future study.
- Photographs do not, of course, produce pheromones, but they do emanate airborne scents derived from chemicals used in the photo developing process. Our study with animate bearded men will employ a strategy to eliminate this imbalance: before being shown to the cats, each bearded man will be immersed in a photochemical bath.
- Boone, Patrick, "Cat Reactions to Clean-Shaven Men," in Western Musicology Journal, March/April 1958, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 4-21.
- Ciccone, Madonna Louise, "Feline Responses to Hairy Legs," in Midwestern Sociological Review, January 1986, vol. 32, no. 1, pp 51-79.
- Conroy, Gary, "Feline Responses to Ponytails," in Urban Sociology Review, November 25, 1987, vol. 21, no. 36, pp. 302-321.
- Norquist, Winthrop Grover, "Feline Reactions to Supreme Court Nominees," in Journal of Feline Forensic Studies, vol. 12, no. 8, August 1988, pp. 437-450.
- O'Connor, Sinead, and Brynner, Y., "Feline Responses to Shaven Heads," in Journal of Head Trauma, May 30, 1990, vol. 42, no. 17, pp. 309-324.
- Quant, Mary, "Cat Responses to Bangs," in Tonsological Proceedings, May 1965, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 251-262.
- Schwartzenegger, A., "A Study of How Cats Respond to Body Hair," in Mind/Body Review, December 1983, vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 25-108.
- Seuss, Doctor, "Feline Responses to Hats," in Veterinary Developmental Studies, July 1955, vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 54-62.
- Smith, J., and Brothers, Joyce, "Feline Responses to Healthy Adults," in Health Advice, September 1972, vol. 51, no. 9, pp. 32-33.
NOTE: After this report was published, the authors continued their research.
A later report (including newly discovered historical photos of cats reacting to Abraham Lincoln, Csar Nicholas, and others) can be seen in the Sept./Oct. 1999 issue (vol. 5, no. 5) of the Annals of Improbable Research.
And still further reports appear in many of the subsequent issues of the magazine. Also see the report Feline Reactions to Bearded Men of Beard Type #55G.
© Copyright Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
This article is republished with permission from the Sept-Oct 1999 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.


text:
Senator Birdwell's office provides the following services:
To request an appointment with our office or invite Senator Birdwell to an event:
Contact: email@example.com
To request a Certificate of Recognition signed by Senator Birdwell:
A congratulatory document signed by Senator Birdwell can be provided in recognition of special events such as birthdays, graduations, wedding anniversaries, Eagle Scouts' Court of Honor, church anniversaries.
Contact: email@example.com
To purchase a Texas Flag from Senator Birdwell's office to be flown over the Capitol:
A Texas flag can be flown over the State Capitol on a specified future date and a personalized Certificate will be created for the recipient of the flag. The 3' x 5' nylon flag is $17.25 and the 3' x 5' cotton flag is $22.25.
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com
To request information from Senator Birdwell's office on the Senate Page program for those who reside in Senate District 22:
During the legislative session, Senator-sponsored students between the ages of 6 - 18 can serve as an Honorary Page For A Day in the Texas Senate. Shifts are three hours and must be arranged through our Senate office.
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com
To request a list of contact information for State Agencies:
Contact: email@example.com


text: 1Linux 2.4.2 Secure Attention Key (SAK) handling 218 March 2001, Andrew Morton 3 4An operating system's Secure Attention Key is a security tool which is 5provided as protection against trojan password capturing programs. It 6is an undefeatable way of killing all programs which could be 7masquerading as login applications. Users need to be taught to enter 8this key sequence before they log in to the system. 9 10From the PC keyboard, Linux has two similar but different ways of 11providing SAK. One is the ALT-SYSRQ-K sequence. You shouldn't use 12this sequence. It is only available if the kernel was compiled with 13sysrq support. 14 15The proper way of generating a SAK is to define the key sequence using 16`loadkeys'. This will work whether or not sysrq support is compiled 17into the kernel. 18 19SAK works correctly when the keyboard is in raw mode. This means that 20once defined, SAK will kill a running X server. If the system is in 21run level 5, the X server will restart. This is what you want to 22happen. 23 24What key sequence should you use? Well, CTRL-ALT-DEL is used to reboot 25the machine. CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE is magical to the X server. We'll 26choose CTRL-ALT-PAUSE. 27 28In your rc.sysinit (or rc.local) file, add the command 29 30 echo "control alt keycode 101 = SAK" | /bin/loadkeys 31 32And that's it! Only the superuser may reprogram the SAK key. 33 34 35NOTES 36===== 37 381: Linux SAK is said to be not a "true SAK" as is required by 39 systems which implement C2 level security. This author does not 40 know why. 41 42 432: On the PC keyboard, SAK kills all applications which have 44 /dev/console opened. 45 46 Unfortunately this includes a number of things which you don't 47 actually want killed. This is because these applications are 48 incorrectly holding /dev/console open. Be sure to complain to your 49 Linux distributor about this! 50 51 You can identify processes which will be killed by SAK with the 52 command 53 54 # ls -l /proc/[0-9]*/fd/* | grep console 55 l-wx------ 1 root root 64 Mar 18 00:46 /proc/579/fd/0 -> /dev/console 56 57 Then: 58 59 # ps aux|grep 579 60 root 579 0.0 0.1 1088 436 ? S 00:43 0:00 gpm -t ps/2 61 62 So `gpm' will be killed by SAK. This is a bug in gpm. It should 63 be closing standard input. You can work around this by finding the 64 initscript which launches gpm and changing it thusly: 65 66 Old: 67 68 daemon gpm 69 70 New: 71 72 daemon gpm < /dev/null 73 74 Vixie cron also seems to have this problem, and needs the same treatment. 75 76 Also, one prominent Linux distribution has the following three 77 lines in its rc.sysinit and rc scripts: 78 79 exec 3<&0 80 exec 4>&1 81 exec 5>&2 82 83 These commands cause *all* daemons which are launched by the 84 initscripts to have file descriptors 3, 4 and 5 attached to 85 /dev/console. So SAK kills them all. A workaround is to simply 86 delete these lines, but this may cause system management 87 applications to malfunction - test everything well. 88 89


text:
The No. 1 reason why friends dump friends on Facebook is when they get fed up seeing too many useless posts, according to new research out of the University of Colorado Denver Business School.
Posts about polarizing subjects such as politics and religion as well as inappropriate and racist comments also sever many Facebook relationships, according to Christopher Sibona, a PhD student in the Computer and Science and Information Systems program.
"Researchers spend a lot of time examining how people form friendships online but little is known on how those relationships end," said Sibona, whose research will be published in January by the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. "Perhaps this will help us develop a theory of the entire cycle of friending and unfriending."
"Unfriend": Oxford's Word of the Year for 2009
Facebook, the subject of the current box office hit The Social Network, is hotter than ever at 500 million users strong. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has zoomed up the Forbes list of richest Americans, appeared on The Simpsons this past weekend and he recently donated $100 million for an education initiative. Facebook is keeping the buzz going this week as well by issuing an invitation on Monday to a mystery event on Wednesday that some think could be about the rumored Facebook phone.
Sibona surveyed more than 1,500 Facebook users to get to the bottom of why people dump each other. Not surprisingly, people who flood others with posts are at great risk of being unfriended.
"The 100th post about your favorite band is no longer interesting," he said.
The study showed that 57 per cent of people unfriended as a result of online actions and that those who make friend requests are more at risk of being suddenly unfriended.
Sibona found mixed reactions by those who have been unfriended, largely dependent upon who did the deed and why.
While millions have enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones on Facebook, the social network has also brought with it many headaches, including those perpetrated by malware writers and other scammers.
As for the business school angle on this study, Associate Professor Steven Walczak said: "With businesses embracing Facebook as a marketing and customer-relationship tool, this will hopefully create new research that further examines how social networks enhance business decision making and outcomes."
Follow Bob Brown on Twitter at www.twitter.com/alphadoggs
Read more about software in Network World's Software section.


text:
In the Jan. 21 New Yorker, David Remnick offers a long profile of various figures from the Israeli nationalist right, including Naftali Bennett, leader of a rising political party.
If Bennett becomes Prime Minister someday—and his ambition is as plump and glaring as a harvest moon—he intends to annex most of the West Bank and let Arab cities like Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin be "self-governing" but "under Israeli security."
"I will do everything in my power to make sure they never get a state," he says of the Palestinians. No more negotiations, "no more illusions." Let them eat crème brûlée.
That final jibe is a reference to Bennett's wife's success as a pastry chef during the couple's sojourn in New York a decade ago. It nicely conveys the dismissive tone of the whole piece.
Remnick writes of the rise of Israel's nationalist right as if it were a wholly autochthonous event, sprung from within Israel for purely internal Israel reasons. Remnick laments the overthrow of Israel's peacemaking left, but he only glancingly acknowledges the reasons for that overthrow.
There have been countless plans for division and resolution—the U.N. partition plan in 1947; the Oslo process in the mid-nineties; Ehud Barak's offers to Yasir Arafat at Camp David and Taba, in 2000 and 2001; Ariel Sharon's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, in 2005; Ehud Olmert's offer to Mahmoud Abbas, in 2007—and with what results? Wars, intifadas, terror, rocket fire, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, hostility in the U.N. and Europe, threats of boycotts and delegitimatization.
But isn't that all precisely true? Remnick has little patience for Bennett's predictions for a West Bank Palestinian state.
If Israel were to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state, [says Bennett] what is now the West Bank would quickly become a second Gaza—a Hamas-led bastion of Islamic radicalism, a launch pad for rocket fire aimed at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport. If Israel were to sign a deal, Bennett told his audience in Tel Aviv, "we'd get praise from the world and, two weeks later, we'll see the first demonstrations on the Green Line. And, if I were the copywriter, the signs would say, 'I Want Home.' "
Those fears do not sway Remnick. But they have swayed the Israeli electorate. And they are the drivers of the Israeli political story of the past decade.


text:
LOUISVILLE, Ky., U.S.A., October 18, 2011 - The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), along with a judging panel from Boating Writers International (BWI), named the all-new Honda Marine BF250 engine as recipient of a 2011 IBEX Innovation Award for outboard engine technology.
2011 IBEX Winner Award logo
BWI and the NMMA presented the 2011 award at the International Boat Builder's Exhibition (IBEX) show and conference at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
The IBEX Innovation Award is the industry's highest honor for innovative and technological advancement. The award recognizes advancements in OEM and aftermarket equipment based on specific criteria: innovative distinction from other products currently being manufactured; benefit to the marine industry and/or consumer; practicality; and cost effectiveness.
The all-new Honda BF250 engine incorporates the world's first marine direct air dual circuit induction system of its type on a production outboard. The first circuit draws air into the front and around critical engine components, and a top-mounted cooling fan draws cooling air over the alternator. The second circuit routes cool air from the upper intake vents, removes moisture, and then inducts it into the throttle body. This system provides for cooler, denser air for better combustion than conventional under-cowl induction systems.
Additionally, the Honda BF250's new idle-charging system was recognized as an innovative feature of the new engine. When the engine's electrical demand increases, the system automatically raises idle speed by 100 RPMs to generate nine additional amps for charging. With the BF250, boaters now can concurrently use multiple accessories without concern for draining their batteries.
"Honda Marine has a history of championing new technologies and customer-focused features in our outboard products throughout the years," said Scott Conner, vice president, Honda Power Equipment. "Earning this award of distinction from both the NMMA and BWI provides a confirmation that our industry values this spirit of innovation."
Honda Marine exclusively features four-stroke outboard engine technology for high fuel efficiency, quiet operation, and low emissions. Honda's outboards share the same unparalleled durability, quality, and reliability of its legendary automobiles. With models ranging from 2 to 250 horsepower, the Honda Marine full line of current production models certify to California Air Resources Board (CARB) 3-Star standards, ensuring their availability and regulatory compliance in all 50 states.


text:
The Crooked Mirror by Louise Steinman
TO CALL THE POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONSHIP complicated would be an understatement, and to label it uneasy or acrimonious seems both inadequate and unfair. But we must use words — aside from "long" — to describe the common history of the two peoples, which goes back to at least the 12th century. There was a time when Polish royals welcomed and encouraged Jews to settle in their land, which is one reason why Poland had been home to the largest and most vital Jewish community in all of Europe as recently as 100 years ago. What remains of that rich culture is of course paltry; the Nazis destroyed an 800-year-old community in six years. World War II spelled the end for 90 percent of Poland's prewar Jewish community, among them some of humanity's best and most promising scientists, academics, politicians, musicians, artists, and writers. While many acknowledge the profound crisis that has hung like a black cloud over Polish-Jewish relations since that time, few have provided any insight into how best to break the impasse.
It is the shape of Polish-Jewish relations in the present that concerns Louise Steinman. In the search for the remnants of her own family, she cannot help but trace and address the many unresolved issues that still stand in the way of a sustained dialogue between Poles and Jews, a dialogue that would at last put them on the path toward true reconciliation. Steinman's book, The Crooked Mirror, will no doubt be part of that reconciliation.
Some people are forced to bear witness; others volunteer, as in the case of the journalist or relief worker. And others, like Steinman, are called back to witness something that can only be glimpsed by solemn digging. These kinds of witnesses offer their labor, their connection to others on a similar quest, and their profound feeling to the dead; what else can we do now that so few of the living witnesses remain?
"The Jews may have once been part of Poland's body and soul, but they'd been excised, cast out," writes Steinman. As a granddaughter of Polish-born parents, Steinman grew up feeling an animosity toward all things Polish deep within her family. Her mother could barely utter the name of the country. Rebecca, Steinman's grandmother on her father's side, told stories in heavily accented English about being smuggled into Poland from Ukraine in 1921 during that country's civil war. But from the maternal side, radio silence. "Even as a child and without knowing why," writes Steinman, "the absence of family history on my maternal side was a gap, an ache." And so while she continued to live her life in Los Angeles, Steinman took up a second life as a historian on a series of journeys into Poland, a historian whose guiding questions were intensely personal and sometimes unclear even to her.
In her introductory chapter Steinman reminds us that "an estimated 80 percent of American Jews are of Polish-Jewish descent," and she goes on to point out that most of them exude more animosity toward Poland than toward Germany, believing, erroneously, that the Nazis had set up their death camps in Poland because they could count on the locals to help them exterminate the Jews. Those Polish-Jews who survived the Holocaust only to be chased out of the country by their former neighbors wanted nothing to do with Poland; their experiences and the stories they told contributed to the image of Poles as most vile anti-Semites. Only the most intrepid, in both communities, have tried to find what unites rather than divides them.
It is Steinman's Zen rabbi in Los Angeles who encourages her to get involved in establishing a dialogue between Poles and Jews. At first, she does not see this as her calling, but in the course of nine trips over a decade, she discovers a deep-seated affinity for Poles and the country as a whole. Much of this awakening stems from her working with Polish guides and translators in their 20s and 30s. These are the new ambassadors to Poland, so much more open and tolerant than their parents and grandparents. On her first visit, Steinman attends a Bearing Witness Retreat, held in the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she participates in workshops with others from Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, France and Israel, most of them the children and grandchildren of survivors. One night they listened to the stories of a Polish actor who had worked as a slave laborer at the camp when he was 19. When the man characterized the Jews in the camp as more passive than the non-Jewish Poles, he angered many of the visitors. Immediately the group was plunged into the quandary of the book –– how to find a way to talk about the thorniest of subjects.
The language Steinman employs in this lyrical yet magisterial book testifies to the depths to which she's gone, as both a researcher and someone marked by the Holocaust, to ask for and offer forgiveness and understanding. Recounting multiple trips to Radomsko, a provincial town in south-central Poland, in search of her family's roots, she elucidates the more important points of general Polish history, including the three partitions at the end of the eighteenth century, after which the country disappeared from the map for 123 years, as well as the fact that "of all the countries in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, Poland was subjected to the most severe and sadistic repression." Indeed for any Pole during World War II saving the life of a Jew meant risking the lives of everyone in his or her family. Yet among the nationalities bestowed with the title of "the Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Center for Holocaust Research, Poles constitute the largest group. Some have tried to downplay the fact, pointing out the relatively small number of honored Poles, given the country's total population and the size of its Jewish minority before the war, but Steinman refuses to play the statistics game, turning instead to a metaphor and asking "why does one person reject the view through the crooked mirror and another accept the distortion?" The answer lies at our fingertips, Steinman seems to suggest, yet remains stubbornly out of reach.
The convoluted, not to mention bloody, history of much of Central and Eastern Europe, including its peoples' narratives of victimhood and resistance, is the key to understanding the deep-seated prejudices that divide the two communities. As part of her strategy to learn more about it, Steinman attended a kind of working retreat at Wannsee, outside of Berlin, where in early 1942 the Nazis had met to outline their plans for the Final Solution. The goal of the more recent gathering, organized by One by One, an organization founded in the 1990s by descendants of "survivors, perpetrates, bystanders, and resisters," is to explore the legacy of the Holocaust and Hitler's regime. The "conspiracy of silence" that prevailed in both West and East Germany after the war had also been in force in Poland, Steinman learns. This isn't to suggest that Poles did not wage a heroic battle against both German and Soviet occupiers, which they did, and she says so; rather, what was absent from the postwar narrative is what had happened to the country's Jewish citizens during and after the war. It was primarily the Nazis who had slaughtered them, of course, but there were also thousands of incidents in which local Poles, mainly peasants living in the countryside, killed Jews or otherwise contributed to the already miserable prospects they faced by either leading the Germans to their hideouts or barring them from returning to their homes after the war. While some of the perpetrators were tried and sentenced after the war, these shameful facts had been downplayed, and thus never entered the country's postwar narrative, most of which continues to center around the Poles' valiant struggle against their occupiers.
All this began to change after Jan Gross's Neighbors was published in 2000. The book, written by a Polish-American historian, documents the killing of 600 Jews in the village of Jedwabne, on July 10, 1941; the victims were herded into a barn that was then set on fire. Gross made public that "the atrocity was perpetrated by the Jews' Polish neighbors, not German soldiers, as had been previously assumed." The ensuing dialogue in Poland has been compared to a "huge national psychotherapy session." Writing in his 2007 bestseller Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz, from which Steinman quotes, Gross offers a two-pronged explanation for why Poles turned on their neighbors: the Poles were betrayed by the Soviets — who arrested and deported thousands of Poles during the war, and in the aftermath of the war executed Poland's Home Army heroes. The Jews returning from the camps were betrayed by Polish neighbors who appropriated their homes, property, and jobs. "A combination of greed and guilt made the sight of the returning Jews so threatening to their Polish neighbors," writes Gross. At the ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the Jedwabne massacre, in July 2001, the then Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski apologized "in the name of those Poles whose conscience is moved by that crime."
Steinman compares the Poles' response to Jedwabne to the massacre at My Lai, and our own country's search for truth, while addressing the issue of collective punishment experienced by civilian populations of all armed conflicts as well as the selective amnesia that follows. In order to break taboos and open a dialogue, Steinman reaches out to the Poles she meets, and in no time discovers how much it pains some of them, including her guide and translator, that Jewish visitors to Poland focus only on the Holocaust rather than the centuries-long history of the Jews in the country. She responds — perhaps unaware that she's echoing the Poles' own oft-repeated summary of what had happened to them during World War II — that "those five years were not like any other five years," to which her guide replies, "without those 800 years of Jewish life in Poland, you cannot understand what was lost in those five."
Soon Steinman and another American Jew — who is herself struggling to come to terms with her own horrific family history and who becomes Steinman's companion for many of the trips in and around Poland — meet with four university students. The issues that arise between them have been standard fare as points of contention. For instance, the young Poles rightly claim that there's no shortage of events and organizations celebrating Jewish culture in Poland, citing as an example the hugely popular annual Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, "which is often criticized by Jews because it's mostly attended by non-Jewish Poles." One of the students contends that the main obstacle on the road to reconciliation is the fact that Jews perceive all Poles in an overwhelmingly negative light. Quoting the writer Eva Hoffman, whose own family left Poland after the government-led 1968 anti-Semitic purges, Steinman suggests that "the varied tonalities of feeling and opinion that must have existed in the long centuries of Polish-Jewish coexistence have been lost in the absence of actual contact."
Ironically, there is perhaps no greater issue at present dividing the two communities than the March of the Living. Organized by Israeli government, these trips to Poland, during which young Jews visit the former concentration camps and ghettos, had until recently been off-limits to Poles, including Polish Jews living in Poland. What's more, according to one Polish Jew living in Warsaw whom Steinman quotes, not only were the Israelis discouraged from meeting the locals, they came equipped with orientation fliers that stated something to the effect of "You shall see the local inhabitants. You shall hate them for their part in the atrocity. But you will pity them for their miserable living conditions." While the fliers have been rewritten and the hateful language removed, the misunderstanding persists. The young Israelis see Poles as the embodiment of anti-Semitism, while Poles see the Israelis as ignorant of Poland's culture and history in general.
A trip to Kolomyja, in today's Ukraine, does not bring closure or relief for Steinman's friend whose father was born in the town — in fact, it further magnifies the woman's pain and desolation. Steinman's repeated trips to Radomsko, her family's long-ago home, turn out more fruitful. She meets many Poles, whom she calls "memory workers," people involved in cultivating the memory of Jews — "not because they're philo-Semitic but because they're philo-Polish." Touring the Radomsko Region Historical Museum, Steinman is initially dismayed that the exhibit commemorating the region's Jews amounts to "just one glass case," but then she's reminded that before the case there was nothing, that the handful of artifacts is a sign that things have changed. Seeing school kids act in a Purim play, she comes to believe that the children perform as a way to "salvage an essential part of their own history." Quoting the Egyptian writer Edmond Jabès, who, writing about Jewish heritage, eschewed continuity in favor of the phrase "permanent rupture," Steinman writes, "I was the rupture. I was the continuity." Indeed, she is both, and the same can be said about like-minded Poles; they "will never hear 'thank you' from the dead" for their work, but they need to hear it from us.
Coming to Poland against the wishes of their relatives, people like Steinman should be applauded for their willingness to face their own "unexamined prejudices." Meeting the Other, understanding what has shaped his or her views, isn't easy. Not all such journeys and encounters have positive outcomes, but many do. In Radomsko Steinman cuts the ceremonial ribbon at the opening of a new Radomsko Cultural Center, thus getting acknowledged as one of their own, a Radomsker. In L'viv, following a heartbreaking trip to Kolomyja, a Ukrainian woman embraces Steinman's friend and whispers, "Welcome home." At the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, a photograph taken in a small village — in which a grove of trees in the middle of a plowed field marks the site of the Jewish cemetery — leads Steinman to conclude that "the presence of the past is kept alive by the observance of absence." Some Poles may not be comfortable talking openly about what had happened to their Jewish neighbors, but they do remember it, and more and more are willing now to face what happened if only among themselves.
Appropriately, the variegated story told by Steinman has two endings. One leads the author back to her native Los Angeles, where she meets a distant relative who remembers the pre-war Radomsko. This woman "embodied all the dizzying polarities and contradictions of the historical debate between Jews and Poles. She'd been rescued by brave Christian Poles who risked their lives — and the lives of their families — to hide her. At war's end, she'd been chased out of her home at gunpoint by venal profiteers." The second ending leads Steinman back to Radomsko, where, in 2008, she takes part in dedicating a monument at the site of the Great Synagogue, commemorating the town's Jewish community and the liquidation of its ghetto. It is this collective memory, as Steinman writes, quoting the Radomsk Yizkor, that links us to "the time when a Polish Catholic painted the zodiac on the ceiling of Radomsko's Great Synagogue and a Polish Jewish tinsmith designed the spires of the town's cathedral." We are left to ponder the image of an elderly man, a Pole who rescued a Jew and has only recently been honored by Yad Vashem, standing side-by-side on a train platform with that Jew's son. Steinman writes, "they had only met for the first time the day before, and yet they already knew each other so well." One might add that while they share the past, it's really looking forward to the future that unites them.
This overdue book couldn't have been easy to write. Heartfelt, poignant, redemptive, and brave, it offers proof that Poles and Jews can lead a constructive dialogue. Poland is not free of anti-Semitism — perpetrated by people from all walks of life, but mainly those who missed out on political and economic opportunities brought about by the country's transition to democracy and accession to the European Union, many of whom subscribe to the thinly-veiled xenophobic messages of Radio Maryja, a religious and socially conservative broadcasting service led by Father Tadeusz Rydzyk. For their part, many Jews continue to cling to various stereotypes of Poles, even though they have never actually met a Pole. Poland's burgeoning Jewish community itself contradicts the message that in Poland "you come to visit death … then you travel back to Israel to see resurrection." With remarkable generosity and an unwavering sense of purpose Louise Steinman writes about the people she meets and the places she visits in Warsaw, Kraków, Radomsko, Vilnius, Lublin, Sejny, Paris, Kolomyja, and L'viv, finding that things are in fact changing for the better. For those still unconvinced, this book is the proof and the way forward.
Piotr Florczyk is a poet, essayist, and translator of six volumes of Polish poetry.
LARB Contributor
Piotr Florczyk is a poet, essayist, and translator of several volumes of Polish poetry, including The Day He's Gone: Poems 1990-2013 by Paweł Marcinkiewicz (Spuyten Duyvil, 2014), The World Shared: Poems by Dariusz Sośnicki (co-translated with Boris Dralyuk; BOA Editions, 2014), and Building the Barricade by Anna Świrszczyńska (Tavern Books, 2016). He is the author of East & West: Poems (Lost Horse Press, 2016), a collection of essays, Los Angeles Sketchbook (Spuyten Duyvil, 2015), and a chapbook, Barefoot (Eyewear, 2015). He is one of the founders of Calypso Editions, a cooperative press, and serves as Translation Editor for The Los Angeles Review. He lives in Santa Monica. www.piotrflorczyk.com.
LARB Staff Recommendations
FDR: Good for the Jews?
WHEN GEORGE BUSH saw pictures of Auschwitz at Yad Vashem, Israel's museum of the Holocaust, he said — with "tears in his eyes&rdquo...
Trading Faith for Wonder: On Judaism's Literary Legacy
PERHAPS NO RELIGION has as much existential uncertainty baked into the product as Judaism. Who, or what, is a Jew? The question remains Jewishness&rsq...
Did you know LARB is a reader-supported nonprofit?
LARB publishes daily without a paywall as part of our mission to make rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts freely accessible to the public. Help us continue this work with your tax-deductible donation today!


text:
With the WGA strike two weeks old tonight, the demand for quality writers (or near-acceptable substitutes) is getting acute.
The Guild only has jurisdiction in the US; making Canadian or UK writers a potential writing resource during the strike. In other words, Canadian and UK writers living and working in their respective countries should be able to write for the studios and networks without retribution. However, reps with writing clients overseas – myself included – are advising caution.
As far as the Guild is concerned, the less writing anywhere, in any media, the better negotiating leverage they have with the studios.The Guild's Strike Rules threaten non-union scribes with denial of future Guild membership if they're caught scab-writing for struck companies. The Writers Guild of Canada made it clear it would turn in any Canadian writers caught working for struck companies during the strike. Although UK resident writers could likewise write during the strike, there is mounting pressure for them to stand down as well. Could India be next?
Here in Los Angeles, rep confusion abounds. I've debated with several agents and lawyers over what constitutes permitted writing for Guild members and non-members during the strike. For instance, can a WGA member: work for a non-struck company? work on an Internet-based project? work in animation? go to meetings for the writer's optioned property? Not really, it depends, maybe and probably not. Not exactly a bright line.
The WGA Strike Rules prohibit its members from working for "struck companies;" typically companies that are signatories to the now-expired Minimum Basic Agreement. The distinction between struck (signatory) companies and non struck, non-signatory companies is a fallacy since WGA members are prohibited from working for non signatory companies. Although the Guild encourages its members to contact them for clarity, anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise as the Guild has yet to return any of my clients' calls.
In the days ahead, I suspect that reps, writers and producers will step up efforts to clarify the confusion. In the meantime, caveat scriptor.


text:
The end result is that the CDS "tail" is wagging the bond "dog". A relatively small, inefficient, opaque and highly leveraged derivatives market controlled by a mere 4 or 5 trading banks, can wreak havoc with the biggest, most important securities market in the world - that for bonds.
Let's put it into casino terms: you are sitting on a ho-hum blackjack table where the action is small and slow. Suddenly, a bunch of well-known high rollers stops by and starts side-betting heavily on your hand. Would that affect your judgement and the way you place your own bets? Of course it would..


text:
Welcome to Seapoint, an elegant Edwardian house offering quality Self Catering accommodation in beautiful Exmoor.
Our comfortable Somerset house is situated on the edge of the charming village of Porlock, which is located in Exmoor, with easy access to Minehead.
We enjoy spectacular views across the bay and are surrounded by the beautiful hills of Exmoor.
The atmosphere at Seapoint is warm, friendly and relaxed.
Self-catering accomodation
The Self Catering apartments are located on the first and second floor of Seapoint and enjoy magnificent views across the bay from their lounges and kitchen/dining rooms.
Each apartment has a double bedroom overlooking the garden and woodlands at the rear of Seapoint.
For more details of our lovely apartments click here. Shops and pubs are only a few minutes walk.
Beautiful countryside and so much more!
Seapoint makes the ideal base for your holiday exploring Exmoor and beyond.
To find out more about the quaint village of Porlock, the magnificence of Exmoor or Seapoint click on the links at the top of the page.
Alternatively, call Seapoint now for more information and start planning your dream Self Catering holiday in the unspoiled beauty spots of Exmoor.
Proud to support the K-Dimbani school


text:
2013 CMT Music Awards Performances – Full List
Jason Aldean opened the 2013 CMT Music Awards with a blistering hot performance alongside rocker Lenny Kravitz. The two may have never performed live together before, but their version of 'American Woman' showed no flaws. Kravitz shredded while Aldean took his turn at the classic song's verse and chorus. It was the beginning to a eclectic night of live music.


text:
FRIDAY, May 16, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Preteens who take part in certain extracurricular activities may be less likely to try smoking or drinking, a new study suggests.
"How children spend their time matters," lead author Anna Adachi-Mejia, of Dartmouth College's Norris Cotton Cancer Center, said in a college news release. "Parents and guardians may think that tweens need less adult supervision when they are not in school. However, our research suggests that certain coached extracurricular activities can help prevent tween smoking and drinking."
The findings are from a 2003 survey of more than 6,500 U.S. students, who were asked about various types of extracurricular activities. The children were all between the ages of 10 and 14, a group that's sometimes called "tweens."
More than half of the tweens said they played team sports with a coach (55.5 percent) or without a coach (55.4 percent) a few times a week. While nearly three-quarters said they were not involved in school clubs, nearly 86 percent said they participated in other clubs.
About half of the students took music, choir, dance and/or band lessons, according to the survey. It also found that more than half of the students involved in religious activities engaged in such activities a few times a week.
Playing team sports under the supervision of a coach was the only extracurricular activity associated with a lower risk of trying smoking. Being part of non-school clubs was the only activity associated with a lower risk of trying drinking, the Dartmouth College researchers found.
Further research is needed to learn why some types of extracurricular activities reduce the likelihood that tweens will try smoking or drinking and others don't, Adachi-Mejia said.
But, she noted that the finding of reduced smoking while playing sports with a coach might offer an opportunity for intervention.
"Unfortunately, in the transition from the tween to adolescent years, coached sports teams face pressure to shift from a philosophy of inclusion to a greater emphasis on winning. This shift potentially shuts out tweens with fewer skills and/or lesser interest in facing the pressures associated with increased competition. I'd like to encourage communities and schools to explore the possibility of offering noncompetitive, affordable team sports with a coach," Adachi-Mejia said.
The study was published in the May issue of the journal Academic Pediatrics.
More information
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about youth and smoking.
This article: Copyright © 2014 HealthDay. All rights reserved.


text:
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody
Teachers in New York City have been slammed by the publication of VAM ratings for 18,000 of them. But something new is happening this time, and it was not what proponents of the use of these ratings for evaluative purposes intended or wanted. People are actually delving into the data to see what it shows.
This week Teach For America founder CEO Wendy Kopp became the latest advocate of VAM to denounce the publication of scores in the press, and the associated public scorning of the "bad teachers" they supposedly revealed.
In taking this stand, she joined one of her chief sponsors, Bill Gates. His foundation has spent millions on developing and advocating for the use of VAM in teacher evaluations. Why are these advocates of VAM so disturbed?
According to Kopp and Gates, we do not get anywhere through "public humiliation."
So how do they believe these scores ought to be used?
Kopp writes:
So-called value-added rankings--which rank teachers according to the recorded growth in their students' test scores--are an important indicator of teacher effectiveness, but making them public is counterproductive to helping teachers improve. Doing so doesn't help teachers feel safe and respected, which is necessary if they are going to provide our kids with the positive energy and environment we all hope for.
We should make individual teacher ratings available to school principals to inform their work recruiting and developing teaching faculties, but releasing them publicly undermines the trust they need to build strong, collaborative teams.
This is remarkably vague, but I gather she means that principals should be using this data for evaluative purposes behind closed doors within the school.
Gates took a similar position a couple of weeks ago, writing:
Value-added ratings are one important piece of a complete personnel system. But student test scores alone aren't a sensitive enough measure to gauge effective teaching, nor are they diagnostic enough to identify areas of improvement.
Meanwhile, across the country, states and school districts are preparing to implement new evaluation systems that correspond to this design. In New York, Governor Cuomo sponsored a new law that will have 40% of a teacher's evaluation based on what he terms "objective" VAM ratings. In this chart released by Cuomo's office a few weeks ago, New York is shown to be one of 22 states now using test scores to rate teachers:
But the idea that this data has any constructive role at all is taking a beating, along with the unfortunate teachers being pilloried by the press.
Blogger and math teacher Gary Rubenstein has done an amazing job analyzing the data that has been made public in New York. Here are some of his findings.
In his first attempt, Gary worked with a basic assumption. If VAM scores are at all accurate, there ought to be a significant correlation between a teacher's score one year compared to the next. In other words, good teachers should have somewhat consistently higher scores, and poor teachers ought to remain poor. He created a scatter plot that put the ratings from 2009 on one axis, and the ratings from 2010 on the other axis. What should we expect here? If there is a correlation, we should see some sort of upward sloping line. Here is what Gary got:
Why are the dots all over the place like a Jackson Pollack painting? Because 50% of the teachers had a 21 point swing in one direction or another.
Why is this? Well, it might be due to the fact that our students vary, and not even the complex formulas used to calculate VAM ratings can account for all the variation between students, and how those dynamics play out in a given class. And many of these things are beyond a teacher's control.
For his second data run, Gary decided to focus on an interesting aspect of the data. Many teachers have two VAM scores for the same year, because they teach the different subjects to the same students or because they teach two different grade levels of the same subject. Once again, we should see an upward sloping line.
This graph shows the scores of two different grade levels of students with the same teacher.
And for his third run, Gary compared three groups of schools; Regular public schools, shown in blue, KIPP charter schools, in yellow, and non-KIPP charters, shown in red. You can see from this graph that the charters are not doing any better at "adding value" than are the regular public schools. Furthermore, the fact that charters all show up near the 50th percentile mark shows that these schools are not, as is often claimed, serving a high proportion of low-performing students.
Gary has lots more insights in his analyses, and they are worth reading.
There is one huge takeway from all this. VAM ratings are not an accurate reflection of a teacher's performance, even on the narrow indicators on which they focus. If an indicator is unreliable, it is a farce to call it "objective."
This travesty has the effect of discrediting the whole idea of using test score data to drive reform. What does it say about "reformers" when they are willing to base a large part of teacher and principal evaluations on such an indicator?
How should we be looking at student learning in the context of teacher evaluation? Student learning ought to be at the heart of a strong evaluation process. But we have to be very careful with how we define and measure this. My next post will focus on this question.
What do you think? What does this show us about Value Added Models and education reform?
All graphs are by Gary Rubinstein, used with his permission.


text:
Carpet, Tile, Upholstery and More
Deep Steam Carpet Cleaners, has been providing the highest standards for carpet and upholstery cleaning in San Luis Obispo County since 1964. We are a IICRC Certified firm with IICRC Certified technicians, who specializing in: Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning, Tile and Grout Cleaning/Sealing and Area Rug and Auto Cleaning'.
We Offer:
• Upholstery & Furniture Cleaning
• Bonded Insert Carpet Repair & Stretching
• Auto & Home
• Oriental and Area Rugs
• Auto & RV Interiors
• Fire & Smoke Odor Restoration
• Odor Control
• Tile and Vinyl Cleaning & Sealing
Our mission is to provide quality services at a price you can afford. Call us to experience the quality services we can provide. From carpet, upholstery, area rugs and grout cleaning to emergency water damage mitigation. Deep Steam has what it takes to give your home a CLEAN bill of health.
(805) 466-1248 – Atascadero • Santa Margarita • Templeton
(805) 543-5539 – San Luis Obispo • Coastal areas
(805) 239-3100 – Paso Robles • San Miguel • Heritage Ranch • Shandon • Creston


text:
The strict environmental regulations of the Galapagos Islands make it one of the most protected places in the world. The islands are so sacred that when you fly in, flight attendants spray the overhead bins in planes to make sure passengers aren't transporting any non-native insects. So when park authorities discovered Celebrity Cruises was transporting frozen lobster out of season, what they consider to be a violation, they temporarily revoked the company's permit to cruise through the islands.
In a statement, the cruise line says they were cited "for transportation and storage of 12 kilograms of frozen lobster tails in the Galapagos." A spokesperson tells USA Today, the cruise line has paperwork to prove the lobster was purchased in the Galapagos from authorized sellers during the lobster season, but the problem is they were in possession of the lobster tail out of season. The Celebrity Xpedition's June 2 sailing was canceled, and additional sailings could be impacted.
Celebrity is providing full refunds, including airfare, to affected passengers, plus a cruise credit offering 50 percent off a future cruise. The company anticipates their license will be restored shortly, and said they are committed to complying with the rules and regulations of the Galapagos.
[via USA Today]


text:
Five Real Estate Tasks Best Done Early
While I'm a big proponent of avoiding premature real estate moves, there are a number of tasks that are best done before you think they need to be. These are things that tend to take longer or often turn out to be more complex than people plan for.
1. Check your credit. Everyone knows that you should check your credit, or have your mortgage broker do it, some time before you get ready to start house hunting. What people fail to factor in are the real-life turnaround times on rehabbing your credit in the event there are errors, fraudulent entries, balances you need to bring down, or trade lines (credit accounts) you need to build up in order to qualify for a home loan.
For the most part, erroneous entries should be removed/removable in relatively short order, but on occasion, something like an account that was truly, but fraudulently, opened by a relative in the borrower's name can take weeks or months to resolve and remove. Many wannabe buyers who consider themselves very responsible, financially, also may be surprised to find that lenders require that they have some demonstrable history of responsibly using credit. In some cases, they will actually need to open and maintain one or more credit accounts in good standing for a short while to qualify.
2. Change your spending habits. The most-overlooked benefit of the tight lending guidelines in place during the past few years is that they motivated mortgage applicants to buckle down, get out of debt and be meticulous about their credit. In the process, people actually rehabbed their spending habits and financial behaviors way in advance of buying a home, creating a level of financial discipline that is freeing, enjoyable and stands them in good stead as homeowners over the long term.
As loan guidelines loosen up a bit, it's still advisable for buyers-to-be to get serious about the whole picture of their finances as soon as they make the decision that they want to buy a home down the road, and clean up their spending, saving, debting, and other money matters.
3. Saving. Some buyers save up precisely what they need to put down on a home and pay their closing costs, not realizing that they might actually need to demonstrate several months' worth of payments that will still be in "reserve" in their savings or investment accounts after they close escrow and deplete their cash-to-close savings.
Also, buyers who start saving late often fail to calculate for the very common tendency buyers have to increase their search price range over time, and for the costs of the fixes and furnishings they'll want when they move in.
These miscalculations tend to result in buyers trying to get unrealistic deals on the first few homes they like, losing a few before they get real about what can truly be had for their dollar in their market.
4. Apply for tax reassessment. Don't forget you can still apply to have your taxes reassessed even though the deadline has already passed for the year. Many who hold off because they missed the deadline actually end up losing track of this to-do list item and forget to come back around to it. If you've missed the deadline to apply to have your home's assessed value reduced for property tax purposes, just apply anyway — early for next year.
5. Talk to a real estate or mortgage broker. Don't delay. Real estate and mortgage brokers are a wealth of information that have the power to take your mental estimations of what will be involved and required to buy or refi or sell into the realm of a reality-based action plan. And they are ecstatic to get calls from prospective clients (that's you) months, even years, in advance, as it makes their job, once it's time to do it, much smoother and simpler.
Talking to a pro before you think you need to can be an eye-opening course-corrector in terms of understanding things like how much you need to put down, any work you need to do to your credit, what you can expect your home to go for or cost you, and many other expectation-managing, plan-of-action-driving essentials.
Tara-Nicholle Nelson is an author and the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com.


text:
Today, I learned the term hyperforeignism after writing that I was drinking a latté and then stopping to wonder why I was putting a diacritical mark on the "e".
This reminded me of other language mistakes that occur more frequently when people are actively trying to make fewer language mistakes, such as:
- Every "----- and me" becomes "----- and I"
- Scattering "myself" throughout one's speech
- "whom" overuse
These mistakes tend to reveal "I'm talking to an authority figure" or "I'm talking to a group that I may not be qualified to be speaking to".
Is there a term for this phenomenon?


text: The journey to your summit is what it's all about – whether it's a mountain or a personal best. The Suunto Ambit3 Peak is your ultimate GPS watch for sports and adventure. It guides you every step of the way, providing all you need to progress and stay safe on your quest. Follow the altitude profile of your route's ascents and descents during exercise directly from the watch. Connect your watch wirelessly to your smartphone and use the free Suunto Movescount App to adjust the watch on the go and visually enrich, relive and share your adventure. There is no better companion out there to make every move count.


text:
POSITION: Professor Emerita/Counseling
DEPARTMENT: Emeriti
LOCATION: Main Campus, Harrisonburg | SB 004
EMAIL: firstname.lastname@example.com
Dr. Benoit Anderson helped found the M.A. in Counseling Program—EMU's first graduate program—in 1993. Her area of specialty was (and is) depth psychology, and she has a particular interest in dreams and how people's quest for wholeness can be informed and deepened through expressive work.
In retirement, Benoit Anderson founded the Institute for Experiential Therapies at EMU in 2011. She also works as a clinical psychologist in private practice.
Off-campus email: email@example.com
BS, College of William and Mary
MA, West Virginia University
PHD, West Virginia University